The New Franklin girls return virtually all of their scoring power from last year’s team that ended the season with an outstanding 20-9 overall record and a district championship appearance.

Coach Parker Gross, now in his third year leading the Lady Bulldogs, returns four of his starting five, which includes senior Lily Chitwood, who paced the team with 20.6 points a game last year, along with Lydia Burnett and Belle Chitwood, who both added more than six points a game, and senior forward Skylar Shaw, who scored five points per contest.

Gross said there has been a lot of continuity with the program over his two previous seasons. New Franklin graduated zero seniors between his first and second season, and only two last year, leaving the majority of the roster with a strong sense of familiarity in the system.

Those two seniors were Emersyn Eads and Brynn Belstle.

This season, the Lady Bulldogs will have five seniors, although Chloe Chitwood will likely be unavailable due to injury. The other four are all potential starters, with one junior and four sophomores waiting in the wings.

First and foremost is Lily Chitwood, who has averaged at least 20 points a game for the past two seasons. She has earned numerous postseason accolades throughout her entire career, during which she has amassed more than 1,500 career points. Last season, she added 4.3 rebounds, 2.6 steals, and 2.6 assists per game to go along with a 54 percent shooting percentage. She also shot 42 percent from 3-point range and made 81% of her free throws.

“Lily has been one of the best guards in the area over the past two seasons,” Gross said. “She handles the ball a ton for us, reads the floor, and can shoot the ball as well as anyone I know. She sets the tone for our group and holds herself to an incredibly high standard every day. She is a player who helps make her teammates better all the time.”

And as good as Lily Chitwood certainly is, she has a strong supporting cast. Classmate Lydia Burnett, an All-District player a year ago, shot 65 percent from the floor, averaging 6.3 points a game with 3.9 boards and a 74 percent free-throw shooting average.

Coach Gross said that Burnett is a great shooter and ball handler with a strong feel for the game. “She loves basketball and will be an important part of our success this season. She does a ton of small things really well on the court that don’t always find their way into a stat sheet, but she has been, and will be, a key player for us to be successful.”

An underclassman who was a strong contributor who became a starter as a freshman last year, Belle Chitwood averaged 6.5 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. At 5’11, Gross said she has the length to be extremely disruptive on defense and has become an offensive threat. “She played really well through our summer games, and she has high expectations for herself on the court this season.”

Also at 5’11 is senior Skylar Shaw, who brings a powerful presence to the paint on both ends of the floor as a three-year starter. She made nearly half of her shots a year ago, averaging 5.2 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. “She will be vital for our efforts to defend the paint and to score the ball inside on offense, and has improved her outside shooting as well. She has gradually improved her game, and we need her to do the same as we go into this season,” Gross said.

Another strong inside presence with starting potential is senior CannaRassa Jennings, who added 3.4 points and 2.5 rebounds off the bench last season. “She’s not super tall, but she plays super strong. She has a ton of energy,” Gross said. “She hurt her ankle in the middle of the year last year, and that hurt us a lot. We need her to be good for us.”

Those six are expected to make up any version of the starting lineup on any given night. Gross said nightly matchups will determine the starting personnel. “From that group, we returned a lot of experience. They are almost all juniors and seniors who have been at the core of what we’ve done for the last couple of years,” he said.

The Bulldogs have strong players ready to come off the bench as well. Sophomore Korinna Chitwood is one Gross said will have to be prepared to play important minutes at the guard position. 

“Korinna is a scrappy guard who will play an extremely important role for us off the bench this year. She’s worked hard to improve her ball handling and shooting in the off-season,” he said.

New Franklin’s offense will likely center around Lily Chitwood, who has been the dominant scoring force for three years. “Obviously, we want the ball and her hands to punch in. But the good thing is having some experience at those other spots gives us a little bit of freedom to move things around and do some things a little bit differently,” Gross explained.

“Our offensive style is when we get an open shot, we take it. We’re not the most patient team in the world, but we’re not trying to force shots,” he added.

The Bulldogs scored an average of around 50 points a game while holding opponents to 37 last season.

To maintain that margin, New Franklin will need to keep its defense stingy. As of this writing, Gross couldn’t say exactly how his defense would take shape. Much of it depends on what personnel are on the floor at any given time. “We played a lot of man-to-man last year, and we were pretty effective in that. We’ll probably still try and play man and try to match up with teams,” he said, adding that pressure will mostly be applied in the half-court.

“We want to get back and defend, and force teams to take a shot,” he said.

Some of that will depend on how well the guards can get the ball into the paint to Shaw and Belle Chitwood. Gross is leaning on Shaw to be a scoring threat inside. “She’s going to be important for us. And defensively, she and Belle, in particular, their link will be important for us defending. Belle was great defensively this summer. From her freshman year to her sophomore year, she’s getting way stronger.

“We need to be able to defend as a team, move the basketball, and share it. And I know Lily has scored a bunch for the last couple of years, but I haven’t given anybody a red light ever to not shoot the ball. When we create opportunities for other people on the floor—which we’re going to have to because teams expect Lily to be a scoring threat—we have to have other people step up and make shots. And we have several people who can shoot the ball.”

New Franklin opened the season with a major test against Class 4 Hallsville on Saturday at The Saints Shootout at Central Christian College of the Bible in Moberly. The Lady Bulldogs won big, 53-18. Another early game was scheduled against longtime rival Salisbury on Tuesday after the Advertiser went to press. Gross hopes those early-season tests prepare his team for the always challenging Glasgow Tournament. The Lady Bulldogs drew the sixth seed and face third-seeded Westran at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

The Glasgow Tournament is stacked with quality teams top to bottom, including CAC opponents Glasgow, Slater, and Cairo. It’s the first of three challenging tournaments in which New Franklin competes during the regular season. The Bulldogs host their own tournament to kick off the new year, starting on Jan. 5. They then travel to the Sturgeon Tournament, which opens on Jan. 26.

“All the tournaments that we’re playing are super tough,” Gross said. “I was really happy about how we competed last year. I thought we lost a couple of games we could have won, but we also competed really well in games that we lost.”

Other games Gross looks forward to include new opponents this season, such as Meadville in the 12 Courts of Christmas at Hy-Vee Arena in Kansas City and a home game against Fatima on Feb. 3. “Having a little bit of change in the schedule provides some opportunities which we like,” he said.

Gross also said the CAC feels a little tighter heading into the season against perennially strong teams such as Cairo and Glasgow. “There are games that should be really competitive. We want to come out and compete and win some of those games.”

Glasgow is a team the Bulldogs could easily face three times, twice in the regular season and again in next week’s tournament. The Lady Jackets bring back their leading scorer in Halle Fuemmeler as well as speed and size. Gross said he looks forward to those games.

“I’m excited for the season,” he said. “The core group that we have is who we’ve had going on our third year now. I think they have high expectations for themselves, and that means they want to hold themselves accountable to do as well as we can and to earn wins on the floor.”